The opening and closing music is an original rendition of "'O Sole Mio" (1898) by Giovanni Capurro (lyrics) and Eduardo di Capua (music).

The image used in the opening titles is a mosaic depicting Plato's Academy from the Villa of T. Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii (Wikimedia Commons), while the image in the closing titles is a fresco showing a prince and a philosopher from the Villa of P. Fannius Sinistrex in Boscoreale (my picture from the National Archaeological Museum in Naples).